OpenSea, one of the biggest marketplaces for NFTs, has announced that it is banning digital artists based in countries sanctioned by the US. The news arose late in December after the Cuba-based artist initiative \u2013 NFTcuba.ART \u2013 tweeted that OpenSea disabled its profile.<\/p>\n

NFTcuba.ART has stated that, while this has impacted upon local Cubans, it has had knock-on effects for other nationalities that now have to suffer as part of the US\u2019 sanctions.<\/p>\n

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long time since we posted, unfortunate that this post needs to be this.@opensea<\/a> has disabled our profile.<\/p>\n
Not only do Cubans on the island, but those who have other nationalities have to endure censorship in web3 company.<\/p>\n
Buying art from Cubans is not banned in the us embargo pic.twitter.com\/7cccbmjNWR<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 NFTcuba.ART \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddfa (@nftcubaart) December 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
On the subject, OpenSea stated that this was to comply with American sanctions law \u2013 which can be very heavy-handed on companies that are found to be skirting them.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, sanctions are more than just a federal policy. Instead, they are a range of presidential orders, and federal regulations enshrined in federal codes. Of course, this complicates them, especially since Cuba has been on the sanctions list since Castro first seized power in the 60s.<\/p>\n
While OpenSea has stated that this move was to ensure compliance, Cuban artists have stated that they were never told why their accounts were removed. Confusing still, is the fact that Cuban expatriates \u2013 like the founder of NFTCuba.ART, and many of the artists who use the platform \u2013 were subjected to these bans.<\/p>\n
The United States has a range of sanctions levied against Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the Russian Federation \u2013 the latter of which has been subject to even more over 2022 due to the ongoing Ukrainian invasion.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n